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Apple removes iPhone vibe coding app from app store

gizmodo.com

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Re: Apple removes iPhone vibe coding app from app store

#41

Post by _moof »

echoangle wrote: post #20
peddling-brink wrote: post #3

As I understand it, these apps allowed running custom code from the app, and that has always been disallowed.

Maybe disallowed but definitely not enforced. There’s an app called Pythonista that has allowed you to run arbitrary python code for years.

Years ago I watched a bunch of people stop an apartment building from being built. They did this by employing a legal concern that they didn't actually care about, but that they knew would stop the development in its tracks. It worked.

That was the day I realized that for a lot of people, rules aren't actually rules. They're tools that they can use to stop something they don't like, no matter what the rule is really about.

I think this is a disgusting attitude, but it's unfortunately the way a lot of people operate.

So it might be that Apple has this "no external code" rule to stop things they don't like, and the category of "things Apple doesn't like" doesn't actually include every app that runs external code. It includes a lot of them, but for whatever reason Apple chose not to codify the details. Crummy if true, but I wouldn't be surprised. Every regulator I've ever dealt with leaves themselves an "I know it when I see it" escape hatch that lets them ban whatever they want.

Re: Apple removes iPhone vibe coding app from app store

#42

Post by wat10000 »

trillic wrote: post #26
echoangle wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe disallowed but definitely not enforced. There’s an app called Pythonista that has allowed you to run arbitrary python code for years.

I haven't been in the App Store ecosystem in a while, but the restriction is generally on running new Machine Code , all machine code needs to be signed on iOS. Interpreters get around this limitation, only the interpreter code that is compiled AoT and signed is actually running . This tracks as the reasoning behind a lack of other browser engines, nobody can get comparable performance without a JIT, which would be c…

Apps don't get removed for breaking that rule, though, because they can't break it in the first place. The system won't allow you to mark a freshly written page as executable.

Re: Apple removes iPhone vibe coding app from app store

#44

Post by wat10000 »

ramesh31 wrote: post #7
peddling-brink wrote: post #3

As I understand it, these apps allowed running custom code from the app, and that has always been disallowed.

>"and that has always been disallowed". And it's always been a stupid rule. If I ship an app with a browser view, I can run any custom code I want in it. The rule is just a bandaid on Apple's lack of true sandboxing for apps.

What's lacking in the sandboxing?

Re: Apple removes iPhone vibe coding app from app store

#45

Post by degamad »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #29
qubidt wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My ideal software: buggy in ways you can't diagnose, for reasons you can't intuit, reproducible by literally no one in the world, and with no one to file a bug report to

I love the idea of all software everywhere involving a die roll. Sounds like it'll be even more infuriating than most computing is right now.

The BOFH is grinning in his cave.

Re: Apple removes iPhone vibe coding app from app store

#46

Post by _aavaa_ »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #39
_aavaa_ wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This get brought up often, and it’s such a lazy example. Apple forces you to give them their cut (you have to pay for developer license even just to keep your own personal apps on your phone). Valve isn’t forcing you to use Steam.

Valve's most anticompetitive rule is that steam keys you distribute outside steam shouldn't be sold for less than the price on steam. Would that Apple were the same.

Which does not actually seem anticompetitive at all.

Re: Apple removes iPhone vibe coding app from app store

#47

Post by F7F7F7 »

mciancia wrote: post #16
wvenable wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The rule is just a bandaid on Apple's lack of true sandboxing for apps. That's not it at all. If an app can run arbitrary code then it can run other apps and that can by-pass the app store. They are specifically trying to prevent something like Wechat on the iPhone. It's not about security, it's about money and control.

Wechat works on iPhone

Wechat is large enough to be able to negotiate requirements with Apple. They are the gateway to an entire continent and close to 2 Billion users. And since they are a 'everything app' the frequency of use and reliance is likely compounded.

Apple's not picking up the phone for 50 million users. So we shouldn't expect anything different here.

Luckily there are other phones and mobile os's to develop for.

Re: Apple removes iPhone vibe coding app from app store

#48

Post by awakeasleep »

_moof wrote: post #41
echoangle wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe disallowed but definitely not enforced. There’s an app called Pythonista that has allowed you to run arbitrary python code for years.

Years ago I watched a bunch of people stop an apartment building from being built. They did this by employing a legal concern that they didn't actually care about, but that they knew would stop the development in its tracks. It worked. That was the day I realized that for a lot of people, rules aren't actually rules. They're tools that they can use to stop something they don't like, no matter what the rule is really…

If you read the actual rule the exceptions are relatively well defined. Stuff like pythonista falls into their educational/coding app exception as they define it

Re: Apple removes iPhone vibe coding app from app store

#49

Post by _alternator_ »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #21
_alternator_ wrote: post #4

The real problem for Apple here: in the fairly near future, the model of pre-defined functionality of software will be obsolete. All apps will be vibe coded and customized. Individual apps will basically be silos that protect proprietary data sources that are difficult to collect. But they will be infinitely more configurable than they are today.

Is there an actual use-case for this fan-fiction-esque prediction of software that rewrites itself, or is this just promoting AI for the sake of promoting it only? I get annoyed enough when software I use changes arbitrarily in ways that don't benefit me, I can't see LLM vibed software that changes itself based on what it thinks I need being an improvement at all. It just feels like it would be even more annoying.

Simply put, yes, there are many use cases. Concrete example: Various timers with a better interface for the specific task I want to do (meditate, pomodoro, workout, etc) and no ads.

There’s no reason I really need those four different apps on my phone with a login and ads and tracking and 100 page terms of service.

Claude can write them for me today. It’s be even better if I just ask my phone for them and they pop up in a couple minutes.

Re: Apple removes iPhone vibe coding app from app store

#50

Post by _alternator_ »

WarmWash wrote: post #6
_alternator_ wrote: post #4

The real problem for Apple here: in the fairly near future, the model of pre-defined functionality of software will be obsolete. All apps will be vibe coded and customized. Individual apps will basically be silos that protect proprietary data sources that are difficult to collect. But they will be infinitely more configurable than they are today.

I suspect any minute the first software with integrated AI customization will launch. Geeks will hate it, but regular folks will love trading all those god damn endless settings and menus for a simple prompt bar. In an almost ironic twist, GUI will revert back to a "CLI".

The article basically said it did launch and then Apple blocked it.

I’m really curious why I’m getting downvoted here. I fundamentally think that software is about to become 1000x more customizable and it’s a problem for the existing app model.

If I’m wrong, I want to know why. The thread seems to have a bias against AI slop (totally understandable), but in my experience it can one shot simple and functional apps today, and the technology will likely be able to make much better apps in the near future.

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